Beauty, Mercy, Justice

Finally

When Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Evangelii Guadium was released I read it online, not hurriedly but excitedly. I wanted to reread it slowly and meditatively , but as I do not like reading anything that is not brief on a screen unless I have to, I ordered it in book form, and eagerly awaited its appearance in my mailbox.

And waited.

And waited.

Apparently I ordered it long before it was in fact in print, but yesterday I finally received my copy.

I am looking forward to reading this the way things are meant to be read: curled up, highlighter in hand, with coffee in the morning and beer at night.

This is off topic, but did anyone see the Tony Magliono article and editorial sidebar in Byzantine Catholic World endorsing Obama’s plan to raise the minimum wage? I love this disclaimer from the editors,

“Following is information prepared by the White House – Ofﬁce of
the Press Secretary. While not endorsing any political viewpoint,
The BCW reports this information as a service to its constituents,
many of whom are hard-working descendants of immigrants who
came to this country in search of work and the hope of a better life.

I’m kind of surprised they’re advocating raising the minimum wage even though it’s obviously the right thing to do, but I am extremely surprised they’re explicitly allying with Obama on this. Made my day to see our media put working people ahead of classism and party politics.

My only complaint is that once again, they’re shortchanging the raise. Should be at least $15/hr by now, by inflation alone.

Same complaint I have with Oregon’s, which is indexed to inflation, but they indexed it only in the mid 1990s, IIRC. Current minimum wage in Oregon is $9.10/hr, up 15 cents from last year, and it will get upped again at the end of the year.